Flood issues: 'You can't beat Mother Nature'

Dresden Wastewater Treatment Plant flooding as river hits highest it's been in the village since 1937

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Pam Britton looks at the ice jam on the Muskingum River at Ellis Dam on Tuesday. The frozen river has backed up to the dam to the point the ice is level to the top of the dam.(Photo: Chris Crook/Times Recorder)Buy Photo

DRESDEN - On Tuesday, Dresden Mayor Dave Mathew was trying to figure out how to keep the village's Wastewater Treatment Plant from flooding more than it already had.

Under normal conditions, a manhole at the plant allows excess water to flow out and down to the Muskingum River. But over the weekend, the river swelled from 9 feet to nearly 22 feet, the highest it has been in the village since 1937, and river water was coming in backward up through the manhole and flooding the plant.

Maybe, Mathew said, officials could cover the manhole with snow.

Officials already plowed snow on the route to River Park, which is completely underwater, to keep people from attempting to go back there, Mathew said. Some campgrounds have flooded as well, and four people were rescued from rising water on Saturday at 9385 N. River Road East, the location of cabins near the river.

"22 (feet) is about as much as we can take," Mathew said.

Throughout the weekend, Muskingum County and Dresden officials have monitored both the ice and rising water on the river. Jeff Jadwin, Muskingum County EMA director, said his office was monitoring an ice jam near Ellis Dam, though there wasn't much they could do.

"I'm hopeful that we don't get any more rain," Jadwin said. "In Dresden, everything along the river is flooded south of 208."

Mathew said no homes were flooded, just campground cabins and buildings people weren't living in. The four people rescued on Saturday weren't living in the cabins.

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A boat rests on the ice at Ellis Dam on Tuesday.(Photo: Chris Crook/Times Recorder)

Fire Captain Matt Salmons previously said two boats from Dresden, along with boats from Falls Township and Washington Township Fire Departments, were used since the high water had come through the fields near the cabins and into the cabins themselves, preventing the people from getting out on their own.

Dresden Fire Chief Harold Wolford said the fire department rescued the individuals from two or three different cabins. All of the individuals refused treatment.

Mathew spend the weekend monitoring the river levels through data from the U.S. Geological Survey. He estimated there was 10 to 12 miles of ice on the river, and he's worried the weather will warm up too fast, melt the snow and ice and flood the river even more.

"You can't beat Mother Nature," he said.

According to a Monday afternoon post on the Morgan County EMA & OHS Facebook page, the ice flowing down the river was adding to a jam north of Stockport. EMA officials could not be reached for comment. A message left at the Morgan County EMA was not returned.